re: #328 Anymouse

Well, I don’t know what influence Sanders could get by supporting a mayoral candidate in Omaha, but Mello is the only Democrat running.

The Democratic Party (as they did in the KS-4 election) is mostly ignoring the race. One thing’s for sure, if the Democrats ignore Democrats running but Sanders doesn’t ignore them, Sanders gets influence with the local voters.

Maybe if the Democratic Party would be interested in supporting (even with a simple endorsement) an actual Democrat running for a major city’s mayoral office …

What will remain with the voters here regardless of how the Mello/Stothert race comes out is that Sanders supported him, not the Democratic Party.

And that’s rather the problem here, why all those “We need to work together!” bits always fall flat with me: In the minds of Sanders supporters, it’s one or the other.

Thompson didn’t have strong DNC support, so Bernie jumps in to endorse him and talk up how the DNC is ignoring races (even though the DNC gave more money to Thompson’s campaign than Bernie did).

Then we flip over to GA-06 where Ossoff has strong DNC support and Bernie’s nowhere to be found, and his supporters make excuses about how Ossoff is “establishment” and thus not worth supporting.

Now we’ve got Mello who’s not receiving strong DNC support and Bernie’s there to wrap an arm around his shoulders.

Beginning to sense a pattern? Bernie only goes where he can be the headline act, where he can dominate the coverage by presenting his “favored” candidate as ignored by the “establishment.” When the DNC is there and supporting a candidate, Bernie mumbles excuses about “the establishment” and his supporters take that as a cue to walk away from the race.